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Getting Burnt?

Only a headless turkey would sunbathe without protection. Why then would reasonable people put themselves in harms way and bake in the sun? We all know that over exposure to the sun causes skin cancer and wrinkles.

On the same note, it only makes sense to not contaminate yourself and those around you with toxic tobacco or marajuana smoke (yes 420 friendly smokers are at risk, too).

Of course, this turkey could swath itself in sunscreen and limit exposure in short incriments of time. This would allow for a protective suntan, which is healthier and more comfortable than a blisterining sunburn.

What about smoking? The only protection any of us have to avoid it, to not partake in administering the poisons and sufficating smoke into our systems. Drinking more water or eating more vegetables and fruits, even getting more excercise and fresh air won't make up for or elieviate the detrimental effects of draging on a cigarette or joint.

Buy a pacifier and tug on that for a while instead of the butt of a smoke. It might look silly, but it would be a lot smarter.

Only turkeys taste better when they are smoked!

THE MANY DEATH TRAPS OF SMOKING

Kudos to goodblogs.com for creating a blog of this niche. I have longed yearned to write as per this topic. In this series, I will be addressing the many death traps been made available to smokers which they may or may not be aware of. On cigarette wraps all we see is "smokers are liable to die young", from what type of death and how long it will take to kill them, all this are not specified. In this series of mine I will be writing on the many diseases attached to smoking and how it affects the human body system.

In my part of the world (West Africa sub region) people who fall prey to smoking are young ones between the ages of (14-29) years and adults ages (30-60) years. I have seen smoking kill many young people and financially wreck many adults. This points to the fact that smoking does not only kill the body, it also kills bank accounts.

SMOKING is an ATTITUDE of burning a substance (commonly a tobacco cigarette), after which the smoke produced from that substance is tasted and inhaled. The pleasures of smoking last for only a few minutes, but they lead to life threatening issues in the long run. Smoking consistently over a long period of time could be detrimental to a smokers health as his/her body is prone various diseases which may either kill them or leave them with a bad health condition.

Diseases caused from smoking can affect every part of the body from top to bottom. Commonly known diseases caused from smoking are: Lung Cancer, Bronchitis, Asthma, Emphysema, Coronary heart disease, Stroke, Hypertension, Atherosclerosis (buildup of fatty substances in the arteries), Impotence. In subsequent series, I will be talking on each disease and its effect on the human system.

I will also like to highlight possible risks attached to each part of the body as caused by smoking, starting with the head.

HEAD Regular headaches Risk of Alzheimer Stroke Multiple Sclerosis

EYES Macular Degeneration Negative effects on sight

MOUTH Gum Disease Poor Dental health Oral Cancer

NECK AND THROAT Cancer of the Pharynx and Larynx Thyroid Disease

CHEST Lung Cancer Asthma Esophageal Cancer COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Colds

HEART Coronary Artery Disease Atherosclerosis High Blood Pressure Elevated Cholesterol Level

ABDOMEN Heartburn Abnormal Aortic Aneurysms Poor Digestive System Peptic Ulcer Pancreatic Cancer

REPRODUCTION (WOMEN) Early Menopause Infertility

REPRODUCTION (MEN) Impotence Erectile Dysfunction Kidney Cancer Prostate Cancer Infertility

BACK Osteoporosis Fibromyalgia Rheumatoid Arthritis Peripheral Vascular Disease

These are few of many effects of smoking on the human body. They are death traps which manufacturers will never alert the the customers to. In my next writing I will be talking on the possibility of STROKE as a smokers death trap.

I hope you find this piece useful to you. Thanks.

Green Tobacco Will Make You Sick

The more research I do about smoking, the more I find how universally harmful it is, and the more the reasons keep stacking up for why everyone should quit! I have recently discovered that the harvesting of the tobacco (called green tobacco, when it first comes out of the fields) is poisoning the pickers, and in particular children, who are doing this job. Read more

Quitting Naturally

There are some forms of naturopathic care that can help alleviate the task of quitting smoking. Although some people swear by things like Nicorette and the patch, others would prefer to search for alternative treatments that are natural and healthy.

Tobacco Absolute is one that is available and smells just like tobacco, which could be sufficient for those who only require a similar scent to help alleviate the cravings. You only need to put a drop on a paper tissue and bring it up to your nose like you would for a cigarette.

Black peppercorn is another one that is excellent to help reduce cravings by making you more alert and energized. Mix it with other oils if you want, or use it alone, in a diffuser or on a paper tissue left in the corner. This type of oil is also good to help improve blood circulation and you can dilute it in a large quantity of almond oil and rub it on your aches and pains.

As well, you can use the following oils for these symptoms:

Anxiety: bergamot, clary sage, frankincense, sandalwood, lavender, rose, mandarin

Calming: lavender, chamomile

Depression reduction: rose, sandalwood, orange, bergamot, clary sage, lavender, ylang ylang, grapefruit, frankincense, lemon, jasmine, neroli

Insomnia: chamomile, clary sage, bergamot

Stress reducing: clary sage, lemon, lavender, chamomile, bergamot, geranium, frankincense, grapefruit, jasmine, ylang ylang

These are only some of the oils and their properties. You can mix them together for better result and use them either in a diffuser, in a bath, or on a tissue left on a table nearby. To help you sleep, you can put a couple of drops on your pillowcase.

Please vote if you like this article!

Different Types of Smoking

Cigarettes get a very bad reputation when it comes to the different forms of smoking. But, they’re not the only ‘guilty party’ involved. They may be the most popular, but other forms are very health damaging, too. Here are some of them. Read more

Why Smoking Harms the Environment

As you may know – especially the The Flaming Vegan writers – I am quite the environmentalist and can link anything undesirable, such as smoking cigarettes, to environmental or social injustice. So, here goes: why are ciggies bad for the environment? Read more

Don’t Let Smoking Stump You (Pun Intended!)

Smoking can be an expensive habit, and it can end up costing you literally an arm and a leg! (Or a leg, anyhow). You may have heard of the medical condition popularly known as Smoker’s Leg, which is very serious and often horrifying and is one of the many compelling reasons to quit the habit! You can lose your leg because of it. Read more

Smokers Get A Bad Rap!

“Everyone is addicted to somethin’

Most certainly those who say “To nothin!”

It’s how we were made

So don’t get delayed

Chasin’ after wishful thinkin’!”

What do I mean? Smokers get a bad rap!

I am all for quitting smoking and other bad habits, but I have found that smokers have been targetted by our society as “easy to hate.” Sure, the side-effects of smoking are rotten, even deadly, but no worse than most of the vices our society faces.

If you are reading this blog, you or someone you know is on the road to freedom from an enslaving habit. I applaud you, and I hope I can offer some alternatives as you read a bit further. But I need to start with an important truth: You are not a bad person.

A bad habit does not make a good person bad.

The truth is, I know many wonderful people who smoke. Do I like that they smoke? No. They have good personalities, though, and they are a blessing to other people. They love their families. They try to better the world around them. Unfortunately, their skeleton just will not stay in the closet: smoking is too hard to hide for most people.

Why is a smoking habit worse than over-eating? Or gambling? Or destroying your self-esteem by always putting yourself down? Each of these habits, and so many more, are detrimental to who you are.

You see, we as humans were made to flourish. We were also made to “crave” what is good, which is exactly what opens the door to addiction. Anyone who smokes knows that it is not good. It is marketed as “cool.” It calms your nerves; it becomes a comforting routine . . . but it is not good. It is painted pretty enough to get you to try it until you are hooked, and then you begin to see the lie for what it is. You craved what is good, got fooled by something that wasn’t, and now you are trapped. Worse, you feel foolish.

Here is the problem, and the solution: You made a mistake, and you allowed yourself to get addicted to something that was not good. Everyone makes mistakes, but you keep re-living yours because you hate yourself for making that mistake. Please remember the truth. The truth is that you were made to seek after what is good. Just because you made a mistake once, does not mean you have to remain subjected to it.

Now that you are battling the addiction, arm yourself with the truth. The good is still out there. You are not a bad person. Mistakes are not the end of the world.

So what is the alternative to smoking? Seek and find the good that is worth craving, instead of what seemed good but wasn’t. The good is out there. Good and evil are real, and good triumphs over evil.

In other words, it is time to pick yourself up, brush off the dust of your mistakes, and learn what is worth craving. The good is worth craving!

It is great to crave a good family. It is good to take the money that you would have used on cigarettes and invest it in your children’s health or education. It is good to crave justice. It is good to take the time you would have used smoking to research how you can fight against human-trafficking. It is good to crave wisdom. It is good to take the desire for another “fix” and instead learn helpful knowledge and apply it influencially. It is good to crave what is good.

Cigarettes are not worth our time, nor is most of what the tobacco industry offers. However, the farmers and businessmen in the industry are not bad people, and neither are the smokers, or the non-smokers. Bad people do exist, but the vast majority of folks are good people deceived by lies and trapped by the desires of their flesh.

So I challenge you today: What will you crave?

Better To Be Choking Than Keep Smoking!

I am pretty sure that all the smokers remember their first time – their first cigarette, that is! I think I speak for everyone when I say that the first time you smoke, you find it really disgusting, it makes you choke and cough and splutter, and you feel very nauseous ! So why do so many continue with it? That is indeed the question.

Speaking for myself, it definitely made me feel quite ill when I had my first cigarette at the age of 14. I was on a school trip to France, on an exchange visit staying with a French family, who had a girl of around my age. The French at that time were a nation of very heavy smokers (and I don't think very much has changed there!) They also smoked extremely strong cigarettes like Gauloises, which are really disgusting in their smell (even more so than normal cigarettes, I mean). The family I was staying with were all moderate smokers, and their daughter was smoked quite heavily, despite being only about 15. I had never smoked at the time and thought I never would, but I was out with Claire, my French friend, one day and some of her friends, and someone offered me a cigarette. This had happened a few times before, and I had always refused, but this time I accepted, just out of curiosity really. It was horrible: I was coughing and spluttering for ages and felt sick and faint. I couldn't understand why anyone would do that for pleasure, and it put me off, for a few years at least!

As I have described in a previous blog, I then stupidly started smoking for real, as you might say, at the age of 20, and really only because I was working with a lot of human chimneys, so I came under their corrupting influence!! At first I still coughed a lot and didn't enjoy it, it took a long time for those physical reactions to go away.

I am fairly certain that is the case with everyone: that the initial response to inhaling a lot of burning toxic chemicals, all the coughing, choking and nausea, is the natural one, the one everyone should have, but we ignore that, we "persevere", if you like (I am not sure that is the right choice of verb!), and once the physical symptoms have subsided, we get hooked. If only people could stick with their immediate physical reaction, what their body is telling them, they would never get to the point of being addicted to it.

I was never a heavy smoker and never addicted, but it was habit-forming with me, nonetheless, and obviously I wish now I had never smoked at all. At least I have been smoke-free for about 6 years now though, so hopefully I can try to live the rest of my life in future as healthily as possible.

Hope you enjoyed this blog, and I appreciate your votes and comments.

Visit to the Hospital

All I can think of right now is the fact that my grandpa has been admitted into the hospital, again.

The doctors don't know anything for sure yet, but I'm so scared. And, when I pulled up Breathing Happy, all I could think about was the hospital and the faces of the people in the Emergency Room. Faces muted with worry and pain and "what if."

Have you ever been in a hospital? They try to make it as pristine and welcoming as they can, but there's still this underlying pressure of illness and pain that ways down every movement, every word. Especially if you're visiting a loved one, or if you're the one being checked in.

I have an image of smoking related death statistics with this post. I chose that particular one because it doesn't only involve the smoker.

The next time that you get the urge to light up, think of who you could be putting in the hospital. Maybe it'll be you. Maybe it'll be somebody that you love–your husband, wife, child, parents, best friend.

Take care of yourself and the people you care about. I believe in you.